I think it was more about the community than the curation. I remember on one quite large BBS there was a guy who was a complete troll and ass - his username was

I think it was more about the community than the curation. I remember on one quite large BBS there was a guy who was a complete troll and ass - his username was Nihilist. It turned out he was a young adult with some sort of a degenerative, and terminal, muscular disorder. Modern times would definitely call him "toxic" or whatever, but he was just another part of the community, and when he passed, it was a somber day. It felt much more like a family. And in your family, even your crazy uncle is still always a part of the family. The first internet based BBSs, which now enabled people to login via telnet and could host magnitudes greater number of users, really started to lose alot of that community aspect of the local systems.